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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) –- It’s an old marketing ploy to bring the high profile football coach on tour to build good will for a team, and that is exactly what’s happening for Gopher football.

Gopher football head coach Jerry Kill is touring the state to build hype for his team. Kill knows what players he has to work next season and he isn’t too impressed. He also knows that if a team isn’t winning, not as many people want to see them play.

“We’ve got great people here in this state,” Kill said. “We just need to match that with a good football team.”

Gopher football has struggled for success for the most of four decades. Kill is trying to change all that, and he knows that that kind of change doesn’t happened overnight. It takes time and work.

But while Kill works with the team, he needs the support of fans. So far, Kill says that the fans he’s met on the road are passionate and numerous.

“The fans aren’t the problem” Kill said. “It’s coach Kill and are football program that has got to step up.”

Kill is stepping up, at least in this tour, and marketing himself as a figure of change that seeks to make Gopher pride something that comes easy to Minnesotans.

“The biggest goal I have at the University of Minnesota, as long as I’m here, I’d really love [people] to stand up and say, ‘I’m proud to be a Gopher,’” Kill said.